ZachTheZip

Dave, I can tell you from Zeke's standpoint that the LBJ factor did not have much of an impact. His decision was based more on the quality of the education, the university (campus) and the coaching staff of Akron. The LBJ factor is an added bonus.As far as Zeke is concerned LeBron's connection to Akron had no affect on his decision to come to Akron. As a matter of fact, LeBron is not Zeke's "favorite" player....Ssshhhh..don't tell LBJ! What influenced Zeke was the relationship he established with Coach Boals and Coach Dambrot, the campus environment and the academics.I would take a kid who wanted to come here for those reasons over somebody who was starstruck by the local celebrity every time.

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/vie...813&Sport=2We seemed to have disappeared from Payne's list on Rivals just as he is supposedly set to visit here. Anyone have some insight to this?

They started it with their "Akron's in Ohio" chant.

I have a feeling that the loudest, most obnoxious students (the ones who go to basketball and soccer) can all fit on the grass hill. Let the other students who are there only for entertainment and socializing sit in the stands. I want to be down right behind the endzone packed like sardines screaming and jumping up and down like we have for soccer games.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketologyAnd the projected MAC champ next year is... Buffalo?!? As a 14 seed?!You've got to be freaking kidding me. You're telling me that we're worse than Buffalo next year, and by proxy worse than a 14 seed? Are you insane, Lunardi?

Let's make it alternating blue and gold.

I can confirm this. When I left on Friday, there was no sign of an impending demolition. I return on Monday and there's a little dirt pile and some rocks where two whole building used to be. There's really nothing to take a picture of, besides finally having a full view inside the stadium from Exchange.

I like the idea of having large banners facing Exchange Street with home schedules for the sports teams on it. It's easy, cheap advertising and it is a constant reminder to the people who drive past it that these are the dates they should show up.

If we plan on having other events than just 6 home games a year, natural grass simply isn't an option. High School games will tear up the field on a friday, leaving no time to repair it for a home game on a saturday.What happened to the soccer team this past fall should have been enough to scare any of us away from wanting natural grass ever again.

How's about no losses to a MAC team, ever again. We should be beyond losing to teams in a league that was 21st in the RPI. No losses to teams like NIU ever or to average-at-best teams such as Buffalo/BG at home. VCU was a good team, and I wish more of our schedule resembled them. Valparaiso was the only truly horrible loss outside of the MAC.

I hope somebody out there in a position to do something is reading this. There's too many excellent ideas here than to have them be ignored and settle for more mediocrity.THIS IS WHAT WE WANT. YOU'RE JOB IS TO BRING US WHAT WE WANT. Most of the ideas here are common sense and easy to implement. Sure some people will complain, but people complain about everything at AkronI don't want to watch a band who only exists because the musicians need it to graduate. Could you imagine if playing on our football team was a requirement for graduation and filled with people who have no business dressing for games, and that everybody had to see the field? It would suck like no other. That's what we have right now with the band.

We would beat most of those teams the way we were playing at the end of the season.

Keep it up! Remember that this team is playing without their #1 recruiting class which would make them that much better.

Not really. I've also heard Bob Huggins' name being thrown around for the job. Either of those two leaving is very unlikely.

The favorites should be Chris Mack and Brad Stevens.The MAC coaches listed are both in their first seasons and didn't really do anything at all worthy of moving up to a team like Xavier.Jim Christian doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would be a good fit for what Xavier is all about. I would be shocked if they hired him after looking at his style of exclusively recruiting JUCOs and convicts.

I agree...personally i believe OSU might be a little overrated considering the ridiculous amount of praise everyone keeps heaping on them. There are plenty of great college marching bands out there that are better than OSU, we just are familiar with them and they have a perennial power house football team so they seem better.They do a good job of hyping themselves and they have an identity. That's why people are bringing them up.I want our band to have an identity. I don't care if it's a traditional marching band style or if they exclusively play Sting songs, so long as they find something they can be known for and then commit to doing it extremely well. The whole "trying to please everybody" thing will never work.Personally, when I think of what a "college football" band should sound like I think of the College Gameday music on ESPN.

Not to take anything away from the club team, but they serve as kind of a minor-league team for the scholarship team. It's more difficult to find and evaluate talent for sports like baseball than it is for football, basketball, and soccer. A club team allows for kids who are already attending the university with an obvious love for the sport to have a chance to showcase their talent.Your club team may very well be better than the varsity team (they're 6-23 so far this season) right now.

The chances are more like 1-in-5. OSU seems to be focusing on getting a PG for their last scholarship, which means they would be backing off Payne.Also, it's pretty much a done deal that the Xavier coach is leaving for Arizona.

Awesome news! A great way to start off the season.

Same deal here. Just what are they hiding?Any Morgan State fans out there want to clear this up?

Well, that Bearroundup.com one banned me as soon as I signed up. Apparenty they don't like non-alumni. Morgan State must be a very exclusive community, or maybe they're just jerks.I'll try my luck with the second one later. I have a feeling that I'll get a better result.

http://www.ohio.com/news/42488147.htmlBeacon article about the stadium tours. Looks like it was a ont-time deal. If you didn't do it then you'll have to wait until Sept 12th or if you're lucky the season ticket picking thing.Nice to get the reactions from former players. They could only dream of playing in a stadium like this when they were here.

I know a few band members and they're some of the biggest Zips fans you'll ever meet. The problem doesn't lie with the students out there playing the songs.There's no way to please everybody when it comes to song selection. Some people prefer rock songs, and some people prefer the old school marching band sound. Keep in mind that choices are limited by the band's makeup: who is able to play what instrument. We don't have the right makeup for what the fans want and the only solution is to find more students that can play different instruments and are willing to commit to the program. There are two problems preventing this from happening: funding and the small-time "the band doesn't matter because Akron is a D-II school with no tradition" attitude that is still held by some individuals and students in the music department.

Thanks. I'll check these out in the morning. They're all blocked here at work.

Does anybody have a link to a Morgan State message board? Do they even have fans?